Page 5004 - Week 16 - Tuesday, 26 November 1991
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MR COLLAERY: I thank members. That is here for tabling. In the Australian Capital Territory Gazette, ACT No. 25 of 26 June 1991, there appeared, under purchase reference Nos 7419, 7421, 7422, 7423, 7424, and 7426, a series of contracts to deal with a D and T building, structural and civil engineering design; mechanical lift services design; hydraulic services design; electricity and fire services design; cost planning; and program services. Here is the proof.
If this were a court, you would be dead cold, Mr Berry. You are caught dead cold. Here is a Gazette, that was issued, showing contracts let after you took power and at a time when you were clearly on notice, because you always had this hospital update to hand, that Mr Humphries was about to let the D and T block. In the days around the time we were dismissed, or I was dismissed, this contract was let or these arrangements were made which appeared in the Gazette.
I want to ask, for the record and for the people of Canberra, whether, prior to the change of government, there was any communication from Mr Humphries or any member of the Liberal Party that the D and T block contract had been let. I expect you, when you rise in reply, Mr Berry, to tell us whether you knew, before you took government, whether the D and T block was let or about to be let, because it is the understanding of the Rally that Mr Humphries went ahead with letting that design contract despite my clear request to him in government not to do it because we knew that things were coming to a head in the Alliance. Let that be on the record.
Mrs Grassby: Oh!
MR COLLAERY: Mrs Grassby, who has been peripheral to this Assembly and its workings since the word go, scoffs. We have made a very significant statement tonight on behalf of the Rally and it adds to the excellent article by Jodie Brough on what you can only call the most extraordinary somersault in political history that any of us have ever seen.
The fact is that the D and T block was the key to it and it is still not built. It is in preliminary design and it is still not there. The fact is that it was well and truly reversible on the basis of other documentation to hand that we still retain. The fact is that Labor decided to go with the Liberal calendar - the Liberal calendar, not the Alliance calendar. By that time it was not the Alliance or Rally calendar. By that time, as part of a series of decisions the Rally had taken, in conference with our medical advisers, we decided that this hospital issue was an important aspect of our decision on a no-confidence motion.
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